Early Prosper Payoff!

When I logged in to my Prosper.com account over the weekend to check things out, I was surprised to see that one of my loans was being paid off early. This was a nice contrast to my two loans that have defaulted. Once this loan has been paid off, which should be in a day or two as the transaction settles, I will be left with one remaining loan, which is at 8.8...

Foreclosures Up Again - Government Bail Out?

CNN is reporting that RealtyTrac says foreclosures were up another 9 percent in July over June and up 93% over the same month last year. They originally predicted a 33% increase over last year in foreclosures for the year, but have now raised that forecast to 60%.But more ominous is this story from msnbc.com. Congress is looking at bailing out homeowners and lenders. Right now, it seems most of the possible action seems to be related to modifying...

Natural Disasters

Growing up in Southern California, I rarely experienced the full force of Mother Nature. We had the occasional earthquake and once in a while the El Nino winds paid a visit, but for the most part, the weather was pretty idyllic. And now that I live in Arizona, I still don't really experience much bad weather. We get some pretty intense thunderstorms, but they typically don't last for too long - hours at most. So when I bought Rental #1 in Oklahoma,...

Cashflow Day

Got my rent check today from Rental #1. I am pleased to report the tenants have finally paid the $200 they never paid back in May. No need to evict them.I'm of two minds on this. These tenants have a history of late payments and I have already decided that I will not renew their lease when it is up in November. After reading what happened to Trisha's property after her tenant was evicted, I'm not really looking forward to having to evict someone....

Reverse Stock Split Arbitrage Revisited

Several months ago, I wrote a couple of posts about some reverse stock split arbitrage plays I made. I've still been making them, but they have been a little harder to find. I've made about 6 or 7 of these trades and all have been successful except for one. That one failed because the terms of the split were altered so that small shareholders were affected instead of not being affected, which this technique relies on. In my comment here, I speculated...

House Swapping

When I need to put gas in my car, I usually stop by Costco on my way in to work in the morning. I get there just around 6 AM, when the place opens, and usually spend a few minutes chatting with the guy who unlocks the pumps. He knows I'm a real estate investor because my car has a license plate frame that says "I Buy Houses" and we often talk about local real estate trends.This morning he told me he has seen stories of people who are trading their...